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Wednesday, Sep. 10, 2025

Did Fort Bliss once house a World War II internment camp for people of Japanese, Italian and German descent?

Brandy Ruiz, El Paso Matters
yes

The Fort Bliss enemy alien detention station, a temporary U.S. Army internment site, began intake in early 1942 and closed in November that same year, according to the Texas Historical Commission and the National Japanese American Historical Society.

Internees were mostly male and of Japanese, German or Italian descent. Spouses and children of some internees joined later in November 1942, according to the THC.

Texas had three temporary detention centers, in Houston, San Antonio and Laredo; three Department of Justice enemy alien confinement camps at Crystal City,  Kenedy and Seagoville; and two U.S. Army temporary detention stations on Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio and Fort Bliss in El Paso.

Instagram user @ellaequeue on Aug. 7, 2025, posted about internment camps, comparing them to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement East Montana Detention Facility at Fort Bliss. Of the historical images shared, only one accurately depicts the internment camp.

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